june recap

I've been bad at keeping in touch, I know, but I promise I'll make it up to you. For now I'll do a speedy catch up of the past month. Earlier in the month, T & I went home to New York to celebrate my father's retirement! Erin enjoyed the lake...

 

 

...and attempted the hammock...

 

...before calling it a day and napping in the grass.

 

While the pup napped I made sugar cookies...

 

...and looked through old photos (most of which are far too embarrassing to share).

We enjoyed some celebratory champagne before heading out to our life-long favorite restaurant.

 

That Sunday we headed home, driving through more sunsets, before restarting our driving the following weekend, when we headed to Philly to celebrate T's cousin's bat mitzvah.

 

the professional dog-walker

 

When we got home later that weekend we picked up some beautiful pink peonies (I really am convinced that Trader Joe's has some of the best long-lasting reasonable day-to-day flowers)....

 

...before making some lavender-vanilla sugar cookies to bring to my final week at my job.

 

This week T & I went to a Brasstacks dinner, knowing it would be recorded for Canada's Travel+Escape channel's new series "Illegal Eater", premiering this fall. According to the IMDB page, the series follows Barenaked Ladies' front man, Steven Page "as he embarks on a journey to uncover some of the tastiest, creative, illegal food in a city's unlicensed - secret - underground venues. It's in these places where the food is always fresh, local, and the experience is completely authentic." We arrived to the dinner, which was set at Bondir, and were shocked to see we were two of only twelve seats set. It was truly a delicious & personal dinner, per usual for Brasstacks, and we were lucky enough to be seated at a table of six with Bondir's chef/owner Jason Bond. 

  

The next day was July 4th (woohoo!), so I made some delicious potato salad, which I will share the recipe for on Tuesday...

 

 

...along with a red, white & blue sangria made with white wine, club soda, a splash of cranberry juice, a splash of vodka and grand marnier, lime juice, strawberries and blueberries.

 

 

After a feast of grilled chicken, cheeseburgers, and the potato salad, we played some croquet with the antique set we picked up at Brimfield last summer.

 

 

As the sun began to set, but the heat was just as intense, we had to find some alternative cooling strategies...

 

 

...before celebrating with sparklers!

 

My last day of my job was yesterday, so now I'll have the whole summer off before heading back to school for my MSW this fall, so I promise I'll be better about checking in with you, okay? Tomorrow I'll finally post the recipe for the tortilla espanola I tempted you with a few weeks ago, and Tuesday you'll be able to see the best potato salad recipe, to use for the rest of the summer.

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simple weekend recap: edition 27

This weekend revolved around the first Boston Calling Festival, held right downtown at Boston City Hall Plaza.

 

When we weren't braving the chilling wind and rain...

...we were indoors enjoying chowder & hot chocolate..

...before venturing back out for Marina & The Diamonds and fun.

*

 

Day two was still a chilly windy day, but nothing as chilling as Saturday...

*

...but after feeling a bit under the weather from the terrible weather of Saturday, we skipped out early to enjoy a warm dinner at Grotto before heading home.

Recently I've been on a big grilling kick...with the weather being beautiful, and the grill taking 5 minutes to warm up, and only 10 minutes to cook the chicken, it is the perfect way to cook anything! My actual favorite reason to grill is because no matter what you marinate your meat in, it will be perfect. I've really thrown some strange things together over time, and each time it's more delicious than the past. 

My newest creation was the "pantry chicken" drizzled with honey, brown sugar, ketchup, sesame oil, soy sauce, olive oil, onion powder, garlic powder, salt & pepper then topped with sesame seeds, it marinates for 1 hour before being cooked on each side for about 5 minutes each.

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds terrible? Maybe, but give it a shot, with some rice pilaf and some asparagus (or maybe some proscuittowrapped asparagus) and you've just made yourself a deliciously easy meal!

 

 

Want to try a southwestern flare instead? Fine! Throw some chicken strips in a ziploc bag along with some adobo seasoning, garlic & onion powder, salt, pepper, olive oil, lime juice, red pepper flakes, crushed tomatoes with chilis, and some chili powder, let it marinate for an hour, then grill it up along with some fresh summer corn!

 

Serve on a tortilla with beans and cheese, maybe some lettuce, and you've got yourself another tasty healthy grilled chicken meal!

 

 

Sick of chicken yet? I can't really relate to that, but fine, I'll share my turkey shepherd's pie recipe with you...but you'll have to wait until tomorrow for that!

 

*: From other members' instagrams with #bostoncalling

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oleana

James Beard winner Ana Sortun's Oleana has been open near Central Square since 2001 with rave reviews by all that have been. Focusing on "Arabic influenced foods of the Mediterranean with a strong lean towards Turkish", this was right up T's alley, and right up mine by being a prime example of farm-to-table with most of their produce coming right from Sortun's husband's farm in Sudbury, Siena Farms.

In we headed, up the ramp (looking like a ghost), to the dimly-lit restaurant with winding turns and many smaller rooms spread about. 

We sat & enjoyed a chilly glass of wine while 

admiring the table and deciding on our meals.

We decided to split three meze courses and have an entree each. The first 6 meze course on the menu are more of spreads and small snacks, while the rest range from a shared app to a full app. We started with the spicy fideos & chicken peas with green chard and orange aioli.

I love spice, so I was excited, but sadly it wasn't spicy at all, and I also didn't taste any orange in the smear of aioli, but I did enjoy the dish as it was light and a good start.

Next we had the spinach falafel with tahini, yogurt, beets & crinkled cress.

This meze course was both T and my favorite dish of the whole night. Light, fluffy, and not even a bit dry, the spinach falafel was delicious, and especially perfect paired with the beets and the pickles on the side.

Our final meze course was the one I was most excited for. As you may know I love octopus, and feel a need to order it everywhere it is offered to get my fill. This dish seemed so perfect for me, grilled octopus carpaccio with spring pea, pepper & a spicy olive salad.

It was fine. That's it, just fine. I knew I had high hopes, but I was so disappointed. The octopus was not carpaccio, rather they were large chunks. The spring peas were delicious, but the "spicy olive salad" was not even close to a hint of spicy. There was a nicely crisped toast-like cracker under the components, which was a great touch, but the rest of the dish was just fine.

For my entree I went with the flattened lemon chicken with za'atar & a Turkish cheese pancake, one of their most famous dishes.

Oh, you can't see this picture? Me neither, because I couldn't see my food at this point. Right before our entrees the lights went low low low and we had to squint to see our food. Nevertheless, I could feel I was eating on a sort of platter, which made me feel like I was at Medieval Times or in Game of Thrones, which was exciting. The chicken was delicious, and well-prepared. Not overly lemony, a large portion, and a nice combination with the pancake, my only complaint was the fact that the cheese pancake was almost too cheesy, as I felt the cheese of choice overpowered the delicate lemony chicken flavor.

T on the other hand went with the tamarack tunis lamb with Turkish spices, pita & everything green with garlic & yogurt.  

He was in love. The dish was like a deconstructed gyro, with perfectly balanced & prepared components. The lamb was ground and made into a sausage before being grilled, which made it quite moist and "uh-mazing" (in the words of T).

For dessert we opted to split the chocolate hazelnut nightingale's nest with chocolate truffle & a fig leaf ice cream.

Perfectly portioned for our needs, the salt of the hazelnuts played well with the nest and truffle, and was overall a great dessert.

After a quick tea from their expensive coffee and tea menu, we headed out, but not before checking out the neat little bathrooms. With mirrored tiles mixed in with regular tiles, it's a nice surprise!

 

 

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